Governor Jindal, Rising G.O.P. Star, Plummets After Speech
February 26, 2009
By SHAILA DEWAN
nytimes.com
Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana has been a rising star in the Republican Party, but his stock took a hit as he was roundly panned for his televised response to President Obama’s first speech to Congress on Tuesday night.
Conservative commentators were among the harshest critics, calling Mr. Jindal’s delivery animatronic, his prose “cheesy” and his message — that federal spending is not the answer to the nation’s economic problems — uninspired.
Mr. Jindal, 37, the son of Indian immigrants, has been regarded as a potential presidential candidate in 2012 who would bring diversity and youth to a post-Obama Republican Party.
But the speech raised questions.
“This was the moment for him to seize the mantle with new ideas, new direction, and lay the groundwork for himself as a creative new thinker,” said Thomas Schaller, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “He just used old platitudes and party clichés.”
Laura Ingraham, the talk radio host; David Brooks, the New York Times columnist; and Juan Williams of Fox News were among Mr. Jindal’s unimpressed reviewers in television commentary, while Rush Limbaugh defended the governor on his radio show. Several commentators noted that response speeches, in which a designated member of the opposition party delivers a short, canned speech with no live audience, have often been a recipe for failure.
“He went in there with high expectations, probably too high for any politician,” said David Johnson, a Republican political strategist. “Republicans are looking for a voice to lead them out of the wilderness.”
Still, Mr. Johnson said, “it was a flop.”
Asked about the comments, Mr. Jindal’s chief of staff, Timmy Teepell, said that the governor was responding to Mr. Obama, whom he called one of the most gifted speakers in generations. “I think the governor did a great job,” Mr. Teepell said.
In his speech, Mr. Jindal said Republicans would work with Mr. Obama in areas where they agreed with him, and he offered a kind of apology for his party.
“You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline and personal responsibility,” Mr. Jindal said. “Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington. Republicans lost your trust, and rightly so.”
He also promoted his own record of tax and spending cuts and ethics reform in Louisiana.
Mr. Jindal’s first star turn was supposed to come at the Republican National Convention last summer, but he canceled his appearance after Hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana. On Tuesday, he told viewers of his immigrant parentage and his father’s awe of American ingenuity.
“It seemed like part of the speech he was giving was the speech that he was to give at the convention,” said John Maginnis, author of the LaPolitics Weekly newsletter. “And that wasn’t really appropriate for the Republican response.”
Mr. Maginnis said Mr. Jindal could be a very effective communicator when responding to questions or speaking at informal town-hall-style events. “But a prime-time, stand-up-and-deliver speech — he’s yet to master that one,” he said.
Mr. Johnson faulted Mr. Jindal for telling a story about Harry Lee, the sheriff of Jefferson Parish during Hurricane Katrina and who has been repeatedly accused of racial profiling, and for bringing up Hurricane Katrina at all, which Mr. Jindal cited as an example of the failure of big government.
“The one thing Republicans want to forget,” Mr. Johnson said, “is Katrina.”
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